NASA has given Nokia $14 million to create a 4G network on the Moon's surface. Could this year get any stranger?
The moon has already thrown up one anomaly in 2020 by presenting us with 13 full moons, and now it seems NASA wants to install a telephone network on the lunar surface.
NASA has just announced funding awards issued to 14 US companies (over $350m in total) as part of the agency's fifth Tipping Point solicitation, a scheme designed to encourage the development of technologies for space exploration.
In particular, the fifth round is focused on technology useful to the Artemis program in which NASA hopes to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2024. Nokia's contribution will be the creation of a wireless network on the Moon's surface, designed to roll out 4G before eventually upgrading to 5G connectivity. It will be working with Intuitive Machines, an autonomous technologies company, to build, test, and deploy the network.
"This groundbreaking network will be the critical communications fabric for data transmission applications, including the control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation over lunar geography, and streaming of high definition video," Nokia says.
According to the company, "this mission will validate the future of other operational deployments and the potential for human habitation on the Moon."
Afterall, who would want to live on the Moon if you couldn't phone home?
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